#TBT: Jimmy Carter Bans Pregnancy Discrimination

 

     Jimmy Carter often called marrying his wife, Rosalynn, his "biggest accomplishment." Perhaps, therefore, it comes as no surprise that Carter made advancing the rights of women a priority of his administration. 1977 was the last year in American history in which every member of the Senate was a man; a quarter of senators are now women, and, perhaps someday, the number will grow to be the 51:49 ratio it deserves to be.

     When Carter appointed 262 federal judges from 1977 to 1981, he made sure a record number of them were people of color as well as women, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1980. 

     On October 31st, 1978, Carter signed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act as a direct response to the Supreme Court ruling General Electric Company vs. Gilbert, a 1976 abomination of justice that ruled pregnancy-related firings did not constitute sex discrimination. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include pregnancy as a protected status; the law would later be clarified in a 2015 ruling to requires employers to make pregnancy-related accommodations to workers. This legislation was a landmark moment in labor rights and feminist history, and President Carter, the legislators who sponsored and voted for it, and all the people who made their voices heard are not often enough credited with its passage.